Donald Trump is once again the undisputed Republican front-runner

Donald Trump in his Trump
Tower office in 2012.Diane
Bondareff/Invision/AP

A new poll
released Friday confirmed a trend: Donald Trump doesn't have
any direct challengers to his status as the Republican
presidential front-runner.

The
CNN/ORC survey found Trump on top of the crowded field, with
36% support among Republican and GOP-leaning independent voters.

According to CNN, "the new poll finds the businessman with both
his broadest support and his widest lead in any national
live-interviewer telephone poll since he announced his candidacy
in June."

The next tier was made up of candidates who were tightly
clustered. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had 16%, followed by retired
neurosurgeon Ben Carson (14%) and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida
(12%).

The rest of the Republican White House hopefuls were in the low
single digits, including former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who had
just 3% support, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who garnered a
paltry 1%.

One month ago, Carson was edging Trump in Iowa, the influential
first-caucus state, and Carson was
even leading in some national surveys. But Carson's support
tumbled amid questions about his knowledge of foreign policy and
a renewed focus on national-security issues.

Earlier this week,
a Quinnipiac University poll similarly found Trump alone at
the top of the field. In that survey, Trump had 27% of the vote,
followed by Rubio's 17%, with Cruz and Carson tied at 16% apiece.